Tag Archives: Jason Caspen

May 2017 Hawaiian Night

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This night was quite a production, augmented with grace and beauty by Hula Tomoka, Yuri and Kanami from the Gold Coast School of Hula Dance. These beautiful Hula Dancers are true joy to behold, breath taking! Aloha Baby – Stu, Paul Agar and Rod Coe provided the bulk of the music including some lush instrumentals. Jason Caspen provided the beat with Miss Amber leading a few tunes as well. The highlight was the Hula dance lesson with a line up of dancers having a great time. Also the best dressed was a lot of fun with the youngest male in the room scooping the Kahuna Massage for dad and Dorothy taking home the ladies prize for her colourful outfit.

Unbelievably, Bede Cooney won the poster… it’s a running gag that Bede wins all the time… he does!  The evening was streamed live on Facebook. Unfortunately there was a little hitch in posting to the Uke Mullum Facebook page, so apologies to those who tuned in. A work around was quickly put in place and the 2nd set was live. Thanks to Samb from Bay Stream who did and amazing job and thanks to those of you who tuned in. Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2

Also big thanks to Luis for sound and lights, he went many extra yards to make the show look great. Big Thanks also for Sista Mary who to care of the door.

It was lovely to see some familiar faces returning to Uke Night and great to see some folk from Yamba, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Jan 2017 Modern Australian

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Thanks to everyone for coming to the Modern Australian UKE NIGHT. It was in the end a fantastic evening albeit with a late start and even later finish. I was up at the crack of dawn and so was our trusty sound man Luis Christia and Door Technician Deb Stoker at the Brunswick Heads Breakfast in the Park Australia Day celebration. The NRUO was leading the songs for the forth year in a row. So we were a little pooped.

This book featured Australian songs from the last 20 years. So not surprisingly some folk had never heard of them. This was the exact reason I did the book. It seems ludicrous that songs most people want to hear and play are the ones they know, usually from their youth when they first fell in love with them. While I understand why that is, in the past 20 years 10s of thousands of songs have been written… some real treasure too. We must keep moving along folks.

With this in mind I thought it important to have some young folk up on stage with us. Local band 100 Words consists of 12 year old – Miller Stuart-Long, (fantastic singer / song writer in the making), Jack Edmonds and Sam Sanders. These guys share the instruments around and have learned how to hold it down and keep it tight. So refreshing to see. Milly sang with daughter Rose Eadie on ‘Big Jet Plane’ before the band got up and played two original songs. Also Sonny Flynn played trumpet. What a great feeling to share the stage with these young musicians. Sam Sanders was actually in the UKE NIGHT band as guitarist and did a mighty job with a talent way beyond his years, playing some wicked riffs and solid grooves and solos on songs he heard for the first time the week before.

The first half of the show was full of pop songs from Australian bands and solo artists, including the wonderful message song ‘Caught In The Crowd’ by Kate Miller-Heidke. Guest vocalist Sara Tindley’s daughter Poppy Baily-Tindley sang this one with Rosie – they were amazing. Both Miss Amber and Sara sang harmonies with the girls unable to contain their proud mother smiles.

Brad Green won the highly coveted poster in the raffles and Noel won the two tickets for next month. Barb won the Australia Day ukulele and promptly told Miss Amber to bend over so she could show her were to stick it. (Barb is over 80 and doesn’t fancy learning I guess).

The 2nd half of the show was more singer songwriter flavoured, perfect for our guests Sara and Mr Ash Bell. Ash is having a break from performing at the moment and it was so great to hear his voice again. See clip of Ash singing Paul Kelly’s ‘They Thought I Was Asleep’. A few people had left by now as it was getting late so it was a very special intimate 30 minutes, finished of by a rockin’ version of  ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl’ from Jet sang by Sara, who can belt out a rock tune with the best of them. (I love when Sara Rocks out)

There was a lot of learning from the musicians this month and I really appreciate the time and effort that went into recreating all the little details. Brilliant keys from new comer Dan Brown who was the perfect man for the job with the ability to pull authentic synth sounds one minute and beautiful piano solos the next. Thanks To Al Brooker and Jason Caspen for their exceptional rhythm section work. The night was ended with a soulful version of Nick Caves ‘Into My Arms’ with impromptu 4 part harmonies in the last chorus. We were packed up and out of there before 10pm.

See more pics from Lyn McCarthy at Niche pics here

Modern Australian

Riptide – Vance Joy
Cry – The Mavis’s
Lighthouse – The Waifs
Coin Laundry – Lisa Mitchell
Caught In The Crowd – Kate Miller-Heidke
Big Jet Plane – Angus & Julia Stone
Don’t Be Silly – 100 Words
Hoops – The Rubens
To My Table – Mama Kin
Walking on A Dream – Empire Of The Sun

Black Bugs – Regurgitator
I’m Not Coming Back – Husky
Buttons – Sia
Time – Sara Tindley
We Won’t Run – Sarah Blasko
Bowen Station – Ash Bell
They Thought I Was Asleep – Paul Kelly
My Happiness – Powderfinger
Heart Beating – Suzannah Espie
Somebody That I Used To Know – Gotye
Are You Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
Into My Arms – Nick Cave

November 2016 – The Best Of the 2016

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The Best Of The 2016 Songbooks

 

This was one of the best fun Uke Nights as it was spontaneous and loose though still very musical and entertaining. Traditionally, November is all about looking back on the songbooks we have presented and choosing the favourites. The result was a very eclectic mix. Sharny Russell was roped in at the last minute. She was coming over to do a guest spot though Stu quickly put her to work on keys, at times playing songs she hadn’t heard before. Of course Sharny (sister of Steve Russell) is one of the Austrailia’s most accomplished Jazz pianists and vocalists. What a touch of class. (we are blessed with the most wonderfully talented musicians).

The band were great as usual – Al Brooker on bass, Jason Caspen on Drums and Evan Landers on Guitars. It was so great to have Misty Henderson back with us. She is such a star in the making. The NRUO backed her during ‘Summertime’ and also performed ‘Lullaby Of Birdland’ which was beautifully garnished with Sharny’s piano.

A great highlight was ‘100 Words’, a band consisting of local 12 year old, Mila Stuart-Long, Sam Sanders and Jack Edmonds who played their 3 original songs during the break. We hope to see more of the group next year. Straight after you could have heard a pin drop during Sharny’s version of Carole Kings ‘You Got A Friend’…. simply stunning. Jono Hillman sang a few tunes with us from the British Invasion book of last month and then did a fine John Kay from Steppenwolf in ‘Born To be Wild’.  Val and Erina did a fine ‘She’s Not There’ by the Zombies. We finished the night with Time After Time which Miss Amber always slays especially with the addition of beautiful harmonies from Sharny and Misty.

Val and Barry won the door prize  – free tickets and somehow convinced Stu that a free bottle of wine was part of the prize. Pete Brosnan took home the poster with the winning number 16. Doesn’t get more fortuitous that. Smiles all round for another fun event in Club Mullum with a bunch of new and familiar faces.

Jan 2016 – Pub Rock

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This was so much fun. We realised the audience was drowned out by the loud monster stage sound we had, though that’s the only way to play Pub Rock with guitarist Tim Longworth, drums by Jason Caspen (who lived these songs) and Rod Coe on fender precision bass plus newcomer Zane on Sax who featured brightly in Men At Works ‘Who Can It Be Now’ and The Models ‘Barbados’. The set list was full of favourite moments from Countdown… ‘Unguarded Moment’ by the Church, ‘Happy Man’ by Sunnyboys, ‘Don’t Change’ by INXS to name a small selection.

Miss Amber did a great Jimmy Barnes for ‘Forever Now’ completely ripped as Chrissie Amphlett in ‘Boys in Town’ and pulled off a very convincing Continental Robert for ‘Soul Kinda Feelin’ then did great backing vocals all evening.

For the third year in a row Sara Tindley and Ash Bell were back to lead some big tunes. And lead they did, Ash always delivers and his versions of two Hunters and Collectors tunes were mighty as was his The Angel’s ‘No Secrets’, Aussie Crawl’s ‘Boys Light Up’ and Dragons ‘April Sun In Cuba’.

We won’t mention the technical glitch we had with ‘Girls On The Avenue’… (for the first time in a very long time this song fell into ruin) though some nice free form vocals came out of that miss hap while Stu struggled to download the chart in the correct Key.

After so many big moments the audience was mouth agape to see Sara Tindley absolutely rock out on ‘Long Way To The Top’. Bon Scott would have been proud. Then we ‘Threw Our Arms’ around each other and it was time go home. It was like going back in time. Probably not the Ukes greatest moment in terms of anyone being heard though Lot’s of smiles at the end of the night and a great way to celebrate Australian Music.

See photo album from Lyn at Niche Pics here

Beatles Uke Night – Repeat Performance

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Betles Night Repeat Performance

 

Amazingly, we had a great turn out and most of the audience were newbies… (they didn’t come to the first night). The band were on fire with the luxury of having performed the songs once before. Fiona Knight again rocked the house… she found her special growl that she doesn’t know how to reproduce in any other circumstance other than singing ‘Twist and Shout’.

Clelia Adams came along and sang harmonies and lead on ‘Yesterday’…. It was a show stopper. Guy Kaychel and Raku O’Gaia again excelled and most notably was the applause Evan Sun received for his solo in ‘Something’. We even pulled out ‘Birthday’ for an audience member who was celebrating his birthday, (Happy Birthday Mason!)…

A great night and well worth repeating. As one of the happy throng commented.. “It was gear!”